By: Christina Olson, Programs Director at Kulshan Community Land Trust

At Kulshan Community Land Trust (KulshanCLT), we strengthen our community in Washington State by holding land in trust for permanently affordable homeownership and by offering financial services to low-income people. Our program improves the lives, well-being, and economic self-sufficiency of low- to moderate-income households by meeting the basic need of a home using the community land trust strategy. We also help low-income renters through our housing counseling programs and by freeing up rentals by assisting others in becoming homeowners.

The median value of homes in the past decade has increased by 96% while family incomes have increased by only 23%, according to the City of Bellingham. KulshanCLT has grown to meet the challenge of providing access to homes people can afford to buy in our community that are also close to jobs and services. By the end of 2018, KulshanCLT had acquired a total of 129 properties in the trust and served 194 homebuyers including 65 resales.

The average KulshanCLT home, upon initial purchase, has been affordable to a household earning 65% of AMI for their household size. Five resale homes in 2018 saw a 4% gain in affordability. Twenty-five homeowners (19% of our portfolio) have solar electric systems installed on their homes, providing the current and future homeowners electricity that is both affordable and sustainable.

As home prices have rapidly outpaced available down payment assistance in recent years, our program has had to adapt to include new construction to increase our supply of affordable homes. Habitat for Humanity has become an essential partner, enabling us to stretch our assistance with their donated labor and materials.

Though the political environment is becoming more aware of the housing crisis and there is some indication that more funding will become available, we will continue to advocate for additional resources for low-income housing at the state and local levels and to strive for more ease of permitting and higher density zoning to provide as many permanently affordable homes as possible.

Among organizations who were nominated for this year’s NLIHC Organizing Awards, some were nominated for best practices and services in their community. Kulshan Community Land Trust (KulshanCLT) was among these. Check out previous years’ blogs from Organizing Award winners and nominees.

To learn more about Kulshan Community Land Trust’s work, please visit: http://www.kulshanclt.org/

This post is part of a series featuring blogs from NLIHC Organizing Awards winners and top nominees. 

By Roberto Jiménez, Mutual Housing California CEO

In 2018, Mutual Housing California organizers took on a year-long voter participation effort with residents of our affordable housing communities as part of a larger movement to secure more local and statewide funding for affordable housing through 2018 ballot measures. Working alongside organizers, activist residents helped lay the groundwork for a potential history-changing affordable housing movement.

Our voter participation effort led to a 14 percent increase in voter registration from 669 to 700 residents. Newly energized, many of these residents hit the streets and worked the phones to make over 44,000 voter contacts in the primary and general elections. In addition, over 100 of our residents completed leadership trainings in 2018 to further support advocacy efforts for affordable housing and other issues such as job opportunities, criminal justice and education.

This combined with other movements across the state resulted in monumental achievements. Two of California’s three major statewide housing-related ballot measures won, producing $6 billion in new funding for affordable housing. These were the first housing bonds approved by California voters in more than a decade. An unprecedented city measure in Sacramento also moved forward that will generate $50 million in new revenues every year for affordable housing, job development and other programs, to be determined by the City Council, with input from a newly-created community advisory commission.

Passage of the state and local housing measures in 2018 only represent a down payment in terms of solving our state and our region’s massive man-made housing shortage. There are approximately 7.5 million people living in poverty in California and a shortage of nearly 1.5 million affordable homes and apartments. In Sacramento and Yolo counties, there are approximately 284,000 people living in poverty. The success we’ve seen in the past year only motivates us to dig deeper, organize better, and fight harder. Our organizing efforts supported these wins and will help ensure that low-income people have a voice when the housing funds are distributed.

Mutual Housing California is the winner of the 2019 State and Local Organizing Award. The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Organizing Awards recognize outstanding achievement in organizing activities that further NLIHC’s mission: Achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. Check out previous years’ blogs from Organizing Award winners and nominees.

To learn more about Mutual Housing California’s work, please visit: http://www.mutualhousing.com/

This post is part of a series featuring blogs from NLIHC Organizing Awards winners and top nominees. 

By Zoë Middleton, Texas Housers, Houston and Southeast Texas Co-Director

At Texas Housers, we support low-income Texans’ efforts to achieve the American dream of a decent, affordable home in a quality neighborhood. We began 2018 by hiring an organizer for our new initiative called “12 Moms.” Our goal was to recruit and work alongside 12 women with children living in subsidized housing to speak out about the conditions of federally-subsidized housing and to tell their stories to promote the importance of housing assistance. Over the course of the year, this goal was greatly exceeded. 12 Moms is now an active group of 120 tenants living in subsidized housing advocating for improved quality of living in subsidized properties.

The initiative focused on two apartment complexes where we knew conditions were particularly dangerous and posed significant risk to tenants. These conditions include mold, decaying walls, and pests that negatively affect residents’ health. Federally-subsidized homes also tend to be located in high-crime neighborhoods that are segregated away from decent schools or safe places to play.

12 Moms educates women with children about how they can advocate for change. Our goal is to draw attention to these issues and demand that HUD and the City of Houston treat people fairly and respect their health and well-being enough to support safe, decent, and sanitary homes for low-income people across the city.

Though 12 Moms is a local effort, it may also have a national impact. Tenants have testified at city council meetings, met with HUD officials, and several tenants are plaintiffs in two lawsuits against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regarding substandard living conditions. We will continue to invest in tenant leaders and work alongside them to make their voices heard in promoting a more equitable Houston by demanding safe and decent subsidized housing.

Texas Housers is the winner of the 2019 Resident Organizing Award. The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Organizing Awards recognize outstanding achievement in organizing activities that further NLIHC’s mission: Achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. Check out previous years’ blogs from Organizing Award winners and nominees.

To learn more about Texas Housers’ work, please visit: https://texashousers.net/

This post is part of a series featuring blogs from NLIHC Organizing Awards winners and top nominees. 

By Jes Larson, Metro Regional Affairs Manager

Nearly every community in greater Portland has been facing unprecedented increases in housing costs, housing insecurity, and displacement in recent years. To address this, Metro – greater Portland’s regional government – successfully placed an affordable housing bond measure on the 2018 ballot resulting in $652.8 million in new affordable housing resources.

The measure was born out of several years of work on the Equitable Housing Initiative, an effort we led to find innovative approaches that result in more safe, stable, and affordable homes. The framework for the measure includes policies and practices to lead with racial equity, eliminating barriers in accessing affordable housing, anti-displacement strategies, and a requirement for sustained community engagement activities that focus on reaching communities of color and other historically marginalized and low-income groups.

Collaborative community engagement with a diverse group of stakeholders was the keystone of the measure. A racial equity lens was used and the community was included in the development of the framework. We held meetings with all three counties and 24 cities within its region and conducted broad public outreach along with our partners, with a total of over 50 engagement activities completed region-wide. Additionally, over three dozen community organizations were involved in developing the measure alongside us.

The housing measure was referred by Metro with full chamber support in June 2018. Local officials testified in support, and residents shared their stories of how it will impact their lives. Six months later, voters approved the housing measure securing 59% of the vote. Metro has not historically played a primary role in financing or developing affordable housing, so we are working with 7 local jurisdictions in the region to who will lead the implementation. This is the first known multi-jurisdictional approach to address housing needs regionally.

These new resources will provide 3,900 permanently affordable homes serving over 12,000 residents. Just under half of the homes will be affordable to extremely low-income households, half are two-bedrooms or more, and no more than 10% of the funds will be used for homes above 60% of area median income (AMI) with the cap at 80% AMI. We continue to work with stakeholders to discuss strategies for addressing ongoing operating funds to keep rents deeply affordable and supportive services needed by some to maintain stable housing.

Greater Portland’s regional government “Metro” was a nominee for this year’s NLIHC Organizing Awards. Check out previous years’ blogs from Organizing Award winners and nominees. To learn more about Metro’s work, please visit: https://bit.ly/2XYUtwY

The winner of the 2019 State and Local Organizing Award: Mutual Housing California and the winner of the 2019 Resident Organizing Award: Texas Housers, will receive their awards on March 28 at NLIHC 2019 Housing Policy Forum in Washington, DC.

This post is part of a series featuring blogs from NLIHC Organizing Awards winners and top nominees.